A conventional method and apparatus are known from the European patent application EP 1 222 858. According to this document an inspection can be carried out by an inspector, who can approve or reject a carcass or a cluster of viscera by pressing one or more buttons. In practice the applicant of EP 1 222 858 applies a switchboard carrying no less than 28 buttons to make the appropriate selections of viscera packages and carcasses to be removed from the processing line. According to EP 1 222 858, pressing a button causes an eject signal to be transmitted to a control system which is adapted to remove the cluster of viscera from a drawing member and/or to remove the carcass from its hook. This prior art solution brings about the necessity to keep accurate track of the timing when a particular button is pushed so as to exactly relate the pushed button to the correct drawing member or hook that the inspector intended to identify for release of the concerning viscera package and/or poultry carcass from the processing line. This prior art solution is prone to incorrect identification of viscera packages and/or carcasses to be removed from the processing line. This problem is even more stressing if one realizes that in current fast-moving processing lines the positions of the carriers for the carcass and the viscera package are neither exactly known nor identifiable, which makes an incorrect removal of viscera packages and/or carcasses from the processing line a continuous possibility. The prior art solution even endangers public health in that viscera packages and carcasses that should have been removed from the processing line, can unjustifiably remain in the processing line due to the mentioned inaccurate identification of carcasses and viscera packages to be removed.
Accordingly, an exemplary object of the invention is to promote public health and to make a trustworthy and reliable selection of viscera packages and/or carcasses that need to be removed from the processing line a standard operational practice.